presumptuosity

English

Etymology

From presumptu(ous) +‎ -osity. Compare Middle English presomtweste, Middle French presumptuouseté, and Latin praesūmptuōsitās.

Noun

presumptuosity (uncountable)

(rare) The state of being presumptuous.
- [1721, N[athan] Bailey, “PRESUMPTUOSITY”, in An Universal Etymological English Dictionary: […], London: […] E. Bell, J. Darby, […], →OCLC, column 2:
  PRESUMPTUOSITY, [præſumptuoſitas, L.] Preſumptuouſneſs.]
- [1791, Nuovo Dizionario Portatile Italiano, Inglese, e Francese, Composto sopra i Dizionarj delle Accademie della Crusca, di Francia, e del D. Johnson, da F. Bottarelli A. M., 2nd edition, Nizza: Presso la Societa’ Tipografica, page 394, column 1:
  Preſuntuoſità, ſ. f. preſumptuoſity, présomption]
- [1816, Dizionario Italiano, ed Inglese, page 351, column 1:
  PRESUNTUOSITA, PRESUNTUOSITADE, PRESUNTUOSITATE, } s. f. (presunzione) presumptuosity, presumptuosness,^[sic] haughtiness, boldness.]
- [1823, John Holtrop’s English and Dutch Dictionary, page 646, column 1:
  Preſumptuousneſs, or, preſumptuoſity [pri-zum´-sjus-nis, pri-zum´-tu-os-ſi-ti] (s.) Vermételbeid.]
- 1842, John Rogers, “Popery in General”, in Anti-Popery; or, Popery Unreasonable, Unscriptural, and Novel, 3rd edition, London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.; Hatchard and Son; […], section I (An account of popery), subsection II (A character of popery, particularly as persecutive), page 33:
  Popery is overrun by absurdity and presumptuosity, by superstition and idolatry, and by other evils many and great.
- 1904 March 24, “Si Klegg, Shorty and their Comrades in the days “When Johnny Came Marching Home.””, in The National Tribune, volume XXIII, number 25 (whole 1180), Washington, D.C., page 4:
  “I must say without presumptuosity that that’s all my work. The Captain left all the management of the company to me.”
- 1910 September 18, Clarence L. Cullen, “Clarence Cullen’s New York Letter”, in The Sunday Star, numbers 285—number 18,253, Washington, D.C., part IV, page 8:
  It is certain that the Lily, not without a certain distinct presumptuosity for which she still is famous, “introduced” Gebhard to the Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward, on a certain occasion when the three accidentally came together in Biarritz;
- 1948, The Permanent Goethe, Dial Press, Inc., page xvii:
  And everywhere he provokes annoyed laughter by his mannerisms in dress and behavior, by his insufferable “presumptuosity” and callow immaturity, and everywhere, he also radiates charm by his youthful fire, his scintillating talent, the almost physically palpable , galvanic force of his animal spirits—and all of it tempered by the indescribable naivete and good nature of a nice, perhaps slightly pampered but well-meaning youth.
- 1959, Excerpta Medica, page 273:
  A distinction is made between subjects who refuse to work because of a lack of impulse (asthenia, cenaesthopathy, abulia, indifference) and those who refuse to work because of their exaggerated sense of self-importance (presumptuosity, histrionicism, mythomania).
- 1998 September 10, Paraic O'Donnell, “d as in dog”, in alt.folklore.urban (Usenet):
  >Oh, yeah, we also got a Trinity Joyce wannabe. / Mark him, with his presumptuosity! No no. I wanna be D.H. Lawrence, 'cept with more lesbians. And some car chases.
- 1999 August 14, Elizabeth, “A Silly Game and Toe-Nails”, in alt.music.leonard-cohen (Usenet):
  >I am wholly incorruptible / > / >Michael / > / >(e-mail me privately and tell me how much you'll pay me) / > / >IN THE BILLIARDS ROOM WITH BOHO / Who said anything about bribes? I'm utterly appalled at your presumptuosity!
- 1999 November 7, R J Valentine, “Seek help”, in alt.usage.english (Usenet):
  ] The customer must not, in payment, issue cheques totalling / ] more than L500 on any single day. / ] / ] This says what the two examples say but avoids their employment of / ] telegraphese. / But perhaps drifting from telegraphese into presumptuosity. How about: Customers may of course issue all the cheques they want, but our policy does not permit us to honour cheques for more than 500 GBP per customer per day. We regret any inconvenience that this policy may cause.
- 2001 November 12, Nathan Tenny, “Current Legend: 4000 Jewish people didn't go to WTC on bombing day”, in alt.folklore.urban (Usenet):
  >A friend of mine told a story that on her first date with the man she / >later married, he went through her spice cabinet and tossed everything / >that he thought was too old. They've been married for over 15 years... / Phew. Some people have a higher tolerance for presumptuosity than others, I guess. I allus thunk it was kind of a social norm that the spice cabinet is a private fiefdom, not to be messed with however good the reasons.
- 2002 March 9, Andy the Sane, “calling - The Arcane Chas”, in alt.fan.adjective-army (Usenet):
  > >Andy the Sane / > >(or should that be "The Sane Andy"?) / > / > No - it shouldn't (don't be so presumptuous). / > / > Adjectives must be *earned*. :-} / > / Fair enough ;) I frequently get over indulgent with my presumptuosity
- 2007, David A. King, Astrolabes and Angels, Epigrams and Enigmas: From Regiomontanus’ Acrostic for Cardinal Bessarion to Piero Della Francesca’s Flagellation of Christ, →ISBN, page 14:
  Also, as is well known, Bessarion’s teacher at Mystra during the early 1430s had been the celebrated Giorgios Gemistos (ca. 1355-1452), who in 1439 had also adopted another “name”, Plethon (Πλεθων), apparently with the arguments that the sounds of the name of the great Plato (Πλατων) were embedded in it yet avoiding the presumptuosity of adopting the great philosopher’s actual name.
- 2008 July 22, R J Valentine, “Re: Hopefully, someone can settle this family argument!”, in alt.usage.english (Usenet):
  Just as "I could care _less_" asserts the irrelevance of any level of caring to what follows, "Can I get" lets you run through the objections to the presumptuosity of a bald "May I have" before considering it.

Synonyms

presumptuousness

Translations

state of being presumptuous — see presumptuousness